Spirit is Dead
by Funereal
Summary: Let paint you a story of t o i l and t e a r s.


Guess it wasn't real after all

_Guess it wasn't real after all_

_Guess it wasn't real all along_

_If I fall and all is lost _

_No light to lead the way_

_Remember that all alone_

_Is where I belong _

_In a dream_

_Will you give your love to me_

_Beg my broken heart to beat_

_Save my life _

_Change my mind_

-Cloud Nine, Evanescence

Spirit is dead

-by Funereal

Disclaimer: Don't own, don't bitch.

The rain poured on a gloomy building.

The marble of it was white, pristine white, glittering in the cloud's moisture. It looked regal, like a castle. Like a shining white castle in the sky, born of a child's imagination, to rule over all in the land with its iron gates and ivory towers.

It was like a dream, the asylum was. Most of its patients went in without a fight.

However.

There is a point where something can be too perfect. Like an artist's painting: the lines must not be too straight, the paint must not be too even. Or it would be perfect. Much too perfect. Much too godlike, much too real.

And perfection is what Chihiro fears worst.

-

Haku couldn't cross the river.

It's nice to be a spirit sometimes. You have powers. You live eternally. You are never separated from your friends.

Except one.

The one you love most.

And you can never find that friend.

Because you can't cross the river.

"_Chihiro," Haku said, "You must cross the stream as quickly as possible. You must not look back. Not even once." _

"_Ok!" She cried, and ran after her parents._

_Don't look back. Don't look back, he urged her internally. Get out of here. DON'T LOOK. DON'T_

_LOOK AT ME._

_PLEASE, GOD, ONE MORE TIME, JUST LOOK BACK AT ME ONCE MORE, PLEASE, PLEASE…_

_I LOVE YOU…_

_CHIHIRO…_

But she didn't look back, following her dear Haku's instructions perfectly. For once.

He sighed, and gazed at the city lights beyond the river. _If only…_

-

She could hear the rain beating on the walls. Music to her ears. It was the only sound she ever heard in the desolate asylum.

_Rain, rain, go away, and come again another day…_

She heard footsteps in the hallways._ They_ were coming for her again. _Go away, _she thought stubbornly. But it never worked. Still,_ they_ came, and pestered her with incorrigible questions.

"I want to go back," she told_ them_ blatantly. "I don't like it here."

"Where do you want to go back?"_ they_ would say. It was the same, every time.

"With Lin, and Kamaji, and Boh, and… Haku…"

"I'm sorry,"_ they_ said. "Those people don't exist."

"They're real," she'd mutter, long after_ they_ were gone. "You just… can't see them…"

-

This time, wailing and crying invaded the walls of her comfortably padded cell.

"YOU MUSN'T! SHE CAN PULL THROUGH! IT'S ONLY A PHASE, PLEASE… NOT MY CHIHIRO…"

Her mother's voice. Chihiro strained her ears.

"It's for her own good," the doctor replied smoothly. "She's hurting herself. She is deprived of sanity, and we must put her out of her misery before it's too late."

Chihiro knew what that meant. The day had finally come when _they _had grown tired of her outlandish stories.

_Run. Run. Run._

"Just… allow us a few more minutes with her." Her father's voice. _He's not fighting. He's not even trying to stop them._

"Five minutes."

Chihiro was on her toes. _Get out. Get out. Get out. _

Haku's cool voice invaded her thoughts. "_You must not look back. Not even once." _

The handle on the door turned.

_Run as fast as you can, and don't look back._

The door opened slowly.

And Chihiro ran.

Her mother shrieked as she rocketed from her cell. It was as though by magic: The security could not hold her. The doors opened of their own accord. Most would call it clever luck, but Chihiro knew: The hair band given to her by Yubaba's sister. _It keeps me from danger. It keeps me safe._

The day would be in the news for weeks to come: a breakout from the insane asylum.

But she was not free yet.

Shouting men chased after her. Police sirens roared. But she was gone, long gone, running back to the bridge and the river and the old train station.

_I'm going back._

_I'm going back._

-

Haku looked at the sun.

It was mocking him, wasn't it? Messing with his head. Making him think he knew that presence.

Chihiro's presence.

And she was getting nearer by the second.

_No, it can't be. _Probably just another ignorant human to stumble upon the spirit world, doomed to be fed till fat and served as pigs.

But…

He supposed it wouldn't hurt to look.

-

The stone two-faced statue was heaven to Chihiro's eyes. Her heart pounded. Her adrenaline pumped. She was exhilarated, and she wasn't about to stop there.

Through the station, past the benches, into the open field.

To the river.

_I can see the sun again._

"I'm home," she cried, and danced around in the rays of beautiful sunlight. "I'm home! I'm home!"

-

He saw the teenage girl laughing in the meadow. _It's not her, _he thought, dismayed. She was younger. But then, since remembering his name, his body had grown as well. So… maybe…

Her chestnut hair and pale skin seemed to come alive under the welcoming sun. "I'm free!" she cried. "I'm home!" She glowed with the happiness of one who had just realized why their life was worth living. A suicidal woman who had found the light. A dying man who saw the glory of god. She was all of those things. And she was beautiful.

"HAKU!"

His heart stopped.

_It's her. It's her. She knows me. She knows my name. Chihiro, Chihiro, Chihiro…_

He ran to her, his childish instincts having completely taken over.

-

They embraced and collapsed, rolling in the flowers. She touched his hand, and his fore arm, and elbow, and shoulder, and neck, and finally his face, and he was real, every part of him. The sun's rays were delightfully hot after her stay in the cold dank room.

She cried his name, and he cried hers, and they laughed, and he kissed her hand and neck and face and lips, and they shed equal amounts of tears. And then Lin came running, and Yubaba and Boh, and she lived again, her dead spirit of the past welling within her.

Their hands entwined, and reveling in the wonder of each other's touch, Haku and Chihiro, lovers while death may never part them, walked back to the bathhouse, an old home to her, and a new one to him.

She gazed at the sky, and the sun and the clouds and water. "I'm alive, "she whispered.

"Hello, life. Hello, hello."

--

**A/N: **This is probably my best work yet. Goodbye, writer's block.

This is always what I'd hoped would happen at the end. Happy endings are beautiful, when used sparingly.

Review to make Funereal happy!


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